In the art of characterizing ion beams and/or plasmas there is a need for a detector of ions and neutral atoms of hydrogen and its isotopes that have kinetic energies ranging from about 1 eV to about 1 keV. There is also a requirement to quantify the flux (i.e., particles per unit area per unit time; e.g., H atoms/cm.sup.2 -sec) of hydrogen emanating from low-energy beams and/or plasmas. Here low-energy is meant to mean any particle kinetic energy below about 10 keV (kilo electron Volts). Detection and measurement of energetic-hydrogen in low-energy beams and/or plasmas is needed to monitor the behavior of fusion energy devices and plasma deposition processes.
It would also be desirable to have an energetic-hydrogen detector that is selectively sensitive to the hydrogen isotopes (i.e., hydrogen, deuterium, and tritium ions and atoms) and relatively insensitive to non-hydrogenic particles.
It would also be desirable to have a plasma detection means that provides an energy analysis of the particles emanating from a plasma; that is, an analysis of the plasma flux as a function of particle energy.
Prior art includes the use of a Schottky barrier diode sensor for detecting the presence of molecular hydrogen, not energetic hydrogen, under ambient pressure and above ambient pressure conditions.
The aforesaid molecular hydrogen sensor has a very slow response time (up to tens of minutes). Such a long response time would not be tolerable in a plasma hydrogen environment where a much shorter response time would be required for measuring energetic hydrogen.